Talent Must Sometimes Assert Itself

October 17, 2009

Finding a voice suitable for Snow White was one of the animators’ hardest pre-production tasks. One day, Disney’s casting director telephoned Guido Caselotti (a well-known voice coach who was married to an Italian prima donna) to get some voice talent references. Overhearing the conversation, Caselotti’s 19-year-old daughter, Adriana, got on the phone to sing and banter in a young girl’s voice. The embarrassed father ordered her off the line, but not before the casting director had invited her to audition. After Walt heard her, the rest, as they say, was history.